Classic Hits

On This Day, May 11, 1981 …

Reggae legend Bob Marley died from cancer at a hospital in Miami, Florida, at the age of 36.

In July 1977, Marley was diagnosed with a type of malignant melanoma under a toenail. By the fall of 1980, the cancer had spread to his brain, lungs and liver, and he played his final concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 23, 1980.

After the cancer spread throughout his body, he went to Germany to undergo an alternative cancer treatment, but during his flight home his health got worse and he was taken to the hospital in Miami, where he passed away.

He was laid to rest with a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21, 1981.

Marley is best known for his 1984 album Legend, which is the bestselling reggae album of all time. It features a live version of the Marley classic “No Woman No Cry,” along with other classics like “I Shot the Sheriff,” “One Love,” “Is This Love,” “Get Up Stand Up” and more. 

Marley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

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The new EP from Belinda Carlisle — her first English-language pop collection in decades — is called Kismet. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer says “kismet” pretty much describes how she ended up coming out of semiretirement to record it.

It all started, she says, when her son ran into legendary songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote Belinda’s 1987 hit “I Get Weak,” in an LA coffee shop. 

“She said, ‘What is your mom doing? Let’s call her!'” Belinda tells ABC Audio. “So they FaceTimed me, and she goes, ‘Get down to the studio. I have some hits for you!’ And I was like, ‘OK, well, do I really want to do that?’ Because that’s a big commitment.”

“So I thought, ‘Well, you don’t say no to Diane.’ And I thought, y’know, you never know,” she continues. “So I went to the studio and she played me a few of the songs, and I completely freaked out about them.” 

That’s Kismet: five songs, all written by Diane, including the single “Big Big Love.” 

“It was all kind of magical,” Belinda says. And she’s not ruling out more music in the future.

“I just think you can never say never … I learned that lesson over and over again,” Belinda notes. “I’m not planning on doing anything else, [but] … if something comes up … I’m not opposed to that.”

What she is opposed to is her band The Go-Go’s reuniting again.

“It’s done,” she says of the band. “I can’t possibly fit that in anymore. And I also, like, it has to end at some point. And I think it can go on too long. And I don’t want that with the Go-Go’s. And a few of the other girls felt the same way.”

Kismet is out on Friday.

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August marks the 50th anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), and now a new coffee table book is looking at the band’s early history through photos.

Pronounced: A Photographic History of Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1973 to 1977 will be released by Rufus Publications this fall. Compiled by legendary photographer and longtime Skynyrd fan Ross Halfin, the book “is a true celebration of the band’s classic period.”

The book features more than 340 pages, with hundreds of rare and unseen images from photographers like Michael Zagaris, Tom Hill, Dick Polak, Barry Plummer and others, along with written contributions from Halfin, music journalist Pete Makowski and Sounds editor Geoff Barton. 

The book will be released in three different formats, including a standard edition and a deluxe collectors edition. Only 450 numbered copies will be available, each personally signed by Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington before his March 5 death. There’s also a leather and metal edition, limited to only 50 copies and also signed by Rossington, which is supersized, bound in recycled leather and enclosed in a metal slipcase.

Presales of Pronounced begin May 12, with the copies set to ship in October.

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While he’s most famous for being the drummer of The Rolling Stones, the late Charlie Watts recorded a lot of jazz music — and now that side of his career is being explored in a new collection from BMG.

Anthology, dropping June 30, will focus on Watts’ catalog of jazz recordings covering a span of close to 20 years. The collection features Watts’ drumming as part of a quartet, quintet, tentet and with an orchestra.

But it’s not Watts all alone, with the set featuring a variety of collaborators, including bassist Dave Green, saxophonists Peter King, Evan Parker and Courtney Pine, trumpeter Gerard Presencer, drummer Jim Keltner and vocalist Bernard Fowler, a member of the Rolling Stones’ live band.

Anthology will be released in double vinyl and double CD formats, with both including liner notes by music journalist Paul Sexton, who wrote Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts.

Anthology is available for preorder now.

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The death of singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot on May 1 sparked lots of renewed interest in his classic songs. According to Billboard, in the week following Lightfoot’s death, on-demand streams of his music jumped 290%, while downloads jumped from 1,000 songs to 41,000 songs, an increase of 3,629%.

The songs seeing the biggest increase include the classic “If You Could Read My Mind,” which tops the Digital Song Sales chart this week, thanks to a 4,162% increase in sales. Other Lightfoot songs landing in the top 10 include “Sundown” at #3, up 2,976%; “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” at #5, up 3,429%; and “Carefree Highway” at #10, up 4,283%.

In addition, all four songs land in the top five on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart: “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and “Edmond Fitzgerald” in the top three, with “Carefree Highway” at five.

Also returning to the chart is Lightfoot’s 1975 compilation album, Gord’s Gold, which jumps to #95 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, its first return to the chart since January 1977, when it landed at 34.

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Folks still can’t get enough of The Beatles. The legendary band just became the latest to join Spotify’s Billions Club, thanks to their classic single “Here Comes The Sun.”

The song is the first Beatles track to make Spotify’s list, which features 405 other tunes. 

“Here Comes The Sun,” written by George Harrison, was featured on The Beatles’ 1969 album, Abbey Road. A remix of the song was released in 2019 to promote the Abbey Road 50th anniversary reissue.

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Madonna‘s 1992 coffee table book SEX, which was out of print for years, was reissued last year, and a series of photos was displayed at the Art Basel Miami Beach art show. Now, 40 of its images are being auctioned off in October and a curated selection of them will be touring around the world.

In case you’re unaware, the release of SEX caused worldwide scandal. It was sealed in a Mylar bag so you couldn’t page through it in the bookstore because it contains photos shot by Steven Meisel that showed Madonna and various celebrities completely nude and simulating sex acts. Madonna also provided the racy text for the book, which she wrote as a character called Mistress Dita.

Among the celebs who frolicked with Madonna in the book were Naomi Campbell, actress Isabella Rossellini, and rappers Vanilla Ice and Big Daddy Kane. Despite the controversy, it sold more than 150,000 copies on its first day in the U.S. and went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

The exhibit, Madonna X Meisel — The SEX Photographs, arrives in London on May 23, Paris on June 27 and New York City on September 30. The New York exhibit, at Rockefeller Center, will culminate with a live Christie’s auction on October 6.  Each photo is estimated to sell for $150,000 to $250,000.

The auction will benefit Madonna’s charity Raising Malawi. She shared a few of the images on Instagram and wrote, “It took us 4 Decades and several Provocative photo shoots to open people’s minds through ART! It took @stevenmeiselofficial almost as long to join Instagram – just in time to announce our Christie’s auction…Proof that great causes can move mountains!”

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The Who has added a new show to their European and U.K. tour, bringing their music to a very special venue. 

The band will bring their The Who Hits Back tour to the Eden Sessions at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, on July 25. The location is the home of the world-famous Biomes, which house thousands of plant species. 

“We’re so thrilled to welcome legends The Who to Eden, in what will be a momentous moment in the Sessions history – and a great occasion for Cornwall,” Rita Broe, managing director of Eden Sessions Ltd, shares. “To see them grace our stage with a live orchestra will be one of the highlights of the summer: creating lasting memories. Don’t miss this!”

Tickets for the special show go on sale Monday, May 15, at 5:30 p.m. BST. More information can be found at edensessions.com.

The Who’s European and U.K. tour, which has them playing with an orchestra, is set to kick off June 14 in Barcelona, Spain. A complete list of dates can be found at thewho.com.

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Duran Duran was honored by their home city earlier this week. The band received a Lord Mayor’s Award for their “outstanding achievement” and “exceptional service” to Birmingham, England. 

“Birmingham is very proud of these Wild Boys, as am I, for putting Birmingham on the international stage,” Birmingham Lord Mayor Maureen Cornish said at their recent show in the city, according to the BBC.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers shared a picture of them receiving their award on Instagram, calling the whole thing “quite an honor.”

Duran Duran just wrapped the U.K. leg of their Future Past tour and will next bring the trek to North America. The tour, featuring special guests Nile Rodgers & Chic and Bastille, kicks off on May 28 in San Jose, California. A complete list of dates can be found at duranduran.com.

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It’s been a big month for ’80s band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. First, they reunited for the first time in 36 years to perform at the opening ceremonies of the Eurovision contest, and now comes word that their story is coming to the big screen.  

Deadline reports that the U.K. studios Working Title and Independent Entertainment are working on a biopic of the band, based on frontman Holly Johnson’s memoir, A Bone In My Flute. The film, titled Relax, is expected to feature the band’s hit songs.

The movie is set to star Callum Scott Howells, best known for his work on the U.K. series It’s A Sin, about the beginnings of the AIDS crisis. 

Frankie Goes to Hollywood is best known for hit songs “Relax,” “Two Tribes” and “The Power of Love,” which all appeared on their debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome. The band broke up in 1987 and hadn’t performed together until the Eurovision ceremony in their home city of Liverpool, England.

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